CHAPTER I Child born in transit to Spain is a Spanish citizen CHAPTER II In May 2022, a Spanish Court of Appeal issued a judgment confirming that child R, who would otherwise have been stateless, was a Spanish citizen. CHAPTER III R was born in 2015 in Morocco in a difficult situation with no medical care. Her mother, M, a citizen of Cameroon, was neither a citizen nor resident of Morocco. R and M arrived in Spain in 2018 and sought international protection. CHAPTER IV In Spain, M tried to register R’s birth with the Moroccan authorities, but they did not reply to her request. Cameroon’s nationality law permits children born to Cameroonian citizens outside Cameroon to acquire nationality, but only if the child is registered with the Cameroonian authorities. M tried to register R as a citizen of Cameroon but was unable to meet the documentary requirements to do so. CHAPTER V Guipuzcoa Court of Appeal considered Spain’s obligations under international and domestic law and held that R was entitled to birth registration in Spain and was a Spanish national, based on the principle of the best interests of the child and the right of every child to a nationality. The Spanish Government did not appeal, and the judgment is final.111 The judge who decided the case in the first instance later said of R: “…fortunately, instead of being ‘nobody’, she will have her rights.”112 Spain’s safeguards against childhood statelessness mean that few children born in Spain remain stateless for lengthy periods, as they are entitled to Spanish nationality, and there are routes to citizenship for most stateless children who arrive in Spain. CHAPTER VI The impact of safeguards against childhood statelessness “I remember the day I received a positive decision about my statelessness application. […] I didn’t know what to feel, but for sure I felt relieved.”113 CHAPTER VII 111 Judgment of Court of Appeal of Guipúzcoa, Decision No. 341/2022, decision taken 11 May 2022, [in Spanish]; and José Alberto Navarro, and Cristina Manzanedo, Spanish Court Recognises the Spanish Nationality of a Stateless ‘Invisible Child’ in Order to Remedy the Violation of Her Human Rights, Statelessness & Citizenship Review, 4(2), 16 December 2022. 112 Quote by Judge Francisco José Ortega Montilla, in Francisco Ortega, Un niño nacido ‘en tránsito’ tiene derecho a ser inscrito y el Estado está obligado a ello, (A child born ‘in transit’ has the right to be registered and the State is obligated to do so), Cadena SER website, 27 October 2021. 113 Quote by Meimuna, a stateless person in Spain, in UNHCR, The Impact of Statelessness in Italy, Portugal and Spain, p. 33. RECOMMENDATIONS 45 ANNEXES